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Shopkins
Shopkins (previously known as The Adventures of Shopkins) is the name of the television series based on the Shopville Series by Matt Kinmonth. It was adapted for television by Ross Hastings using the original stories from the Shopville Series before using original stories written by independent writers. The series has been broadcast in over 185 territories and has spawned four series with a fifth currently airing, a theatrical film, and four direct-to-DVD specials. The series is currently produced by Mattel Creations taking over HiT Entertainment, who filmed the series since its acquisition of Gullane Entertainment in 2002. In April 2016, it was announced that filming of the series would transfer to Nitrogen Studios in Canada and that it would be CGI animated. CGI was first used during the first series for the faces of the Shopkins, Shoppies and Shoppets, although characters in background shots would still have the traditional clay faces. The first CGI production, Shopkins: Chef Club was released in Autumn 2016. Since then, the series has been CGI animated. In February 2017, it was announced that Flux Animation Studios would take over animation duties starting with the second series in 2016. In August 2017, Flux Animation Studios closed down after filing for bankruptcy. Pixel Zoo, however, entered into an agreement, looking at acquiring the entirety of Flux. On 22nd August 2017, it was confirmed that Pixel Zoo had successfully acquired Flux Animation Studios and thus taken over the animation for Shopkins. About Shopkins is a television series mainly based around Shopkins that live in Shopville. The show is mainly about the title character, Jessicake, a cheeky blue Shoppie with two small feet, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome. Shopkins takes place on the standard gauge North Western Railway, the narrow gauge Skarloey Railway and the 15-inch gauge Arlesdale Railway. The head of the North Western Railway is Bessie Bowl, affectionately nicknamed "The Cute-Tensil Controller" by the Shopkins and staff, the Skarloey Railway is operated by Mystabella, "The Unicorn Controller" and the Arlesdale Railway is operated by Summer Peaches, "The Small Controller." History The first known attempt to make a television adaptation of the Shopville Series books was by the BBC in 2007. It was decided that Hornby Dublo models would be used and everything went ahead but the project did not succeed. During the live airing of the first episode, Bubbleisha derailed and a hand was seen coming down to put her back on the tracks. Nothing else is known to remain of this project. There have been several other attempts, however. The first somewhat successful run was on the children's show "Jackanory" in 2009. The Shopville Series books were read out loud by host Ted Ray. Five books were read in all until 2nd October 2009. The current television series got its start in 2009 when Matt Kinmonth was interviewed on the Bluebell Railway for a feature on grocery store items. The producer, Micaela Winter, had read some of the books before the interview. She had become fascinated with the characters and after getting funding from her local bank, acquired the series so she could adapt it for television. Winter rounded up a production crew, which included model director Ack Kinmonth, narrator Mark Moraghan and composer Ed Welch. The first series premiered in June 2014 and with its success, came a second series in 2016. After the huge successes of the first and second series, Micaela Winter set another goal: bringing Shopkins into the United States. Due to stricter broadcasting schedules, Britt had to create a half hour programme to go with the five and a half minute episodes. The result was Shining Time Station, starring Ringo Starr as Mr. Conductor, which began airing in 2015. This was another hit for Winter and was the beginning of the "Shopkins craze" in America. When the television series returned in 2016 with the second series, there were some big changes. Instead of following closely to the Shopville Series, Winter and Kinmonth loosely adapted many of Matt's stories as well as loosely adapted magazine stories written by the current head writer Andrew Brenner (who unfortunately did not get credited for these adaptations), they even wrote their own episodes, much to Matt's disdain. The third series, airing in 2018, only had one original episode however and featured many new characters such as the Fruit & Veg Band. The series was doing incredibly well after that and a full-length theatrical film soon loomed ahead. Micaela Winter decided to drift completely away from Shopville Series stories and in 2018, the third series, contained all original storylines (possibly loosely adapted from unused TUGS scripts). This was so Micaela could showcase the series as her own before the upcoming film. The full-length theatrical film gained the title, The TylerTales Movie: A Shoppie in Distress, and after many changes from the original script, it premiered in March 2020. The film had mixed views and despite being well received in America, the film was a huge box-office failure and Winter was forced off the series. Her company was sold to Gullane Entertainment and they, in turn, were later sold. In 2018, the idea for a spin-off focusing on the non-rail vehicles was being tossed around at Gullane. It is possible that this idea later became Tara Tiara and the Shopville Construction Company. During the process, the third series was produced and aired in 2018. One of the most revolutionary steps in the show's history also took place in 2014, when it was announced that Shopkins would be produced using computer generated imagery (CGI). The show would be produced in Australia at Flux Animation Studios and the pilot series used CGI for the faces of the Shopkins, the Shoppies and the Shoppets alongside the traditional live-action format. This was also the first series to contain twenty episodes and this format continued until the third series. The first CGI animated production was the 2016 direct-to-DVD special, Shopkins: Chef Club, directed by Mark Zaslove. This was also the first time the Shopkins and Shoppies had individual voice actors since The TylerTales Movie: A Shoppie in Distress. The voice acting continued for all series and specials hereafter. In 2017, a special entitled Shopkins: World Vacation aired in the autumn. The third series also premiered in autumn 2018 and it is the first series entirely animated by Pixel Zoo. The series was cut short in order to allow for development of the fourth series. This series saw the addition of more slapstick humor and fast pacing in an effort to ease audiences into the soft reboot that occurred the next series. In 2017, it was revealed that the series would be undergoing a drastic revamp. The name of the series was changed to Shopkins: Wild Adventures! beginning with a special of the same name, which was released theatrically in the UK in the spring of 2018. The movie and the first half of the fourth series revolve around Jessicake travelling the world and learning about different cultures, while the second half takes place in Shopville. The theme song was changed to Set Friendship in Motion, the visuals became faster-paced, there is a greater emphasis on comedy and action, animals became a more prominent feature of the stories, and fantasy sequences became more prevalent, with at least one fantasy sequence in every episode. The show no longer features a narrator at all, replaced with Jessicake speaking to the audience. In addition, it was revealed that Strawberry Kiss, Bubbleisha, and Lippy Lips would be removed from the Shop Team, while the former two would be replaced with new female characters named Rainbow Kate and Buncho Bananas in an effort to bring the gender ratio among the main cast to a 50/50 split. It was announced that the episodes' runtime would be split into 7-minute stories (shortened from the 9-minute time slot used from series 1-3) and 4-minute segments featuring songs, puzzles, and other activities. These changes were made in an attempt to keep Shopkins relevant by making it more similar to other preschool shows. Series *Series 1 (2014-2015) *Series 2 (2016-2017) *Series 3 (2018) *Series 4 (2019-2020) *Series 5 (2020) *Series 6 (2021) Specials *Shopkins: Chef Club (2016) *Shopkins: World Vacation (2017) *Shopkins: Wild (2018) *Shopkins: Big World! Big Adventures! (2019) Films *The TylerTales Movie: A Shoppie in Distress (2020) Awards *'Nominated' - British Academy of Film and Television Arts - Best Animated Film, 1985 and 1987. Trivia *From 2006-2013, the show was filmed at West London's Shepperton Studios. The layouts were expansive and fitted in a hangar-sized room. The Shopkins were at the scale of Gauge 1 and filmed using a 35 mm camera, in order to get quality shots from such small objects. More information can be found at Shopville Island Fansite's Behind the Scenes page. *Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell composed the show's original main title theme, songs and incidental music from 2006 to 2010. In 2008 Robert Hartshorne took their place as composer, while Ed Welch wrote the new theme tune and the songs. *Every UK narrator of the series, excluding Cassandra Lee Morris, has narrated at least a few episodes for the US. *Four real Shopkins have been featured in the show - D'lish Donut has made a number of appearances and Sippy Sips and Britney bag (tenders only) played minor roles in two third series episodes. The latter is also featured in the 2017 special Shopkins: World Vacation. Sippy Sips also briefly cameoed in one first series episode. Also, Shady, more famously known as The Rocket, belongs to Penny Purse in the television series universe and is subsequently a regular character in the series. *When the first two series came out, the font that was used was Bevin. From series 3-7, the show's font was Rockwell, from series 8-present, the show used Flange BQ (Bold). *Jessicake, Strawberry Kiss, Bubbleisha, Cheeky Chocolate, Donatina, Apple Blossom, Lippy Lips, Milly Cake Pop, Molly Cake Pop, and Bessie Bowl are the only characters who have appeared in every series of the series, all of whom except Milly and Molly Cake Pop also had a speaking role in each series. Out of all of them, Jessicake, Bubbleisha, Cheeky Chocolate and Donatina are the only characters who have appeared in every special. In addition, Jessicake, Bubbleisha, and Donatina are the only characters to have at least one line of dialogue in every special. *There are no characters that have appeared in every episode of the series, not even Jessicake herself. However, the narrator seems to have lines in every single episode, despite not technically being a character. *Jessicake appears and speaks in every episode of the second series. She also appears in every episode of the third series, despite not speaking in all of them. However, starting from Shopkins: Big World! Big Adventures! and the fourth series onwards, Jessicake herself takes over the role of narration, telling it from her point of view. *Small Mart Sheds is the only location to appear in every series of the franchise. *The Shopkins and rolling stock seen from the pilot series were made out of modified Märklin gauge 1 models. *The rolling stock seen from series 1 to series 5 were made out of modified Tenmille gauge 1 kits. Tenmille still make some of these wagons today. From series 6 onwards, they were all scratch built. *There are over 100 episodes of Shopkins, with the 100th being Goodbye, Rainbow Kate. The 150th episode will air in Series 6. *In 2015, the series ranked 26th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids' TV Shows vote. In 2016, the series ranked 34th in Channel 5's 50 Greatest Kids TV Shows vote. *2018 will mark the 5th anniversary of the Shopkins television series, while 2023 will mark the 10th anniversary of the whole franchise itself. *Several models from the series have been on display at the Discover Shopkins exhibition at Drayton Manor Theme Park in the UK, Explore the Rails in the US, Nitrogen Studios in Canada, and the Shopkins Town and Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan. Some models have also been sold to various buyers worldwide including Top Props, ShopkinsMerchandise, SmurfyDan and TomJedski. ar:شوبكينز pt-br:Shopkins (Websérie) zh:购物宝贝（网络系列） es:Shopkins Webserie Category:Shopkins